What are the characteristics and economic development of the main recipients of public support to business R&D?

The article aims at exploring the structure and development of the main businesssector recipients of direct government R&D support in the period 2007-2018. Within the group of the largest recipients concentrating 50 % of the funds allocated to the business sector, all of the key areas identified in the Czech smart specialisation strategy were represented adequately. Despite its increasing share on the total support to business sector, the contribution of this group of businesses to the total gross value added and total R&D expenditure in the respective economic sectors decreased. This indicates the direction of support rather towards long-standing recipients, regardless of their doldrums or even declining economic importance. At the same time, the originally high share of government funding in the total R&D expenditure of the observed group of businesses even increased. However, the development of government funding share varied substantially depending on the size and sector of the main recipients. In the context of the presented findings, the main question arises: What is the optimal share of government funding in the total intramural R&D expenditure in the business sector? Despite the potential differences based on size, sector or other characteristics of businesses, exceeding certain threshold would lead to substitution of private resources by public funding.